What is Copper?
Copper is a soft malleable metal with high thermal and electricity conductivity for many uses in the world today. In existence since circa 8000 BC and one of the first metals to be smelted into sulfide ores and later on be cast into shaped molds with expanded use and discovered during the Roman Empire. It has become one of several essential metals for industrial and economic growth.
Copper is used in integrated circuit boards, renewable energy components as solar, wind, tidal, hydro, biomass and geothermal with copper usage averaging up to fiev timesmore in these types of systems. Copper is also has antimicrobial properties and applied onto doorknobs and handrails.
According to the International Copper Study Group (ICSG), world copper mine production increased by 3.1% in the first nine months of 2021. Copper output from some of the largest copper producers including Chile was down 2% but up 11% in Peru, and Indoneisa output increased by 55% as the ramp-up fromt he Grasberg mine, with DRCongo up 11% and Panama up 79% from new and expanded operations.
However, despite the increased production, world refined copper balance for the first nine months of 2021 indicates an apparent deficit of about 160,000 t. As of the end of November 2021, copper stocks held at the major metal exchanges (LME, COMEX, SHFE) totalled 173,712 t, a decline of 77,463 t (-31%) from stocks held at the end of December 2020. Stocks were down at the LME (-26%), COMEX (-24%) and SHFE (-44%).
WIth increased demand, copper will see demand for alternative energy uses jump from 2.1M tonnes in 2020 to 4.3M tonnes in 2030.
It is now forecasted that at least 10 million metric tons of additional copper consumption over the next decade with a third of the 10 million tons of new demand would come from the electric vehicle sector. (Reuters, April 22, 2024 Copper Demand to Boom as New Technology Drives Power Consumption".
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Source: Wikipedia, The International Copper Study Group (December 20, 2021 ICSG Press Release), Visual Capitalist
